FILENAMES: oldlath2.jpg oldlath5.jpg oldlath6.jpg oldlath8.jpg DESCRIPTION: These are pictures of an old unknown lathe that infomation is desired about. Posted by Karaya ??? . Karaya provided the following description: ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Now that I have figured out how to post to this newsgroup...on to the good stuff..... A few months ago I aquired about 250+ lbs. of rusty metal which, upon inspection, turns out to be a metal lathe of some kind, and I was hoping that maybe some one of you could identify it from a description. It doesn't look quite like any lathe I have seen before. (Not sure if I should post a picture here or not.) Pardon any "non-machinist" terms I might use in this description...but obviously I ain't one. It looks like a bench lathe and as it has no stand. It looks to swing about 6" over the "bed" and maybe 24" between centers. The "bed" itself is made up of two round solid metal cylinders, the forward one being just less then 3" in diameter and the rear one just less then 1 1/2". The carriage, (cast iron, I think) moves on both these cylinders and has a 3 holes: One for the front cylinder, one for the lead screw, and one for the back cylinder, in that order. The front hole has a split and 3 square head bolts that can either adjust for wear, or lock the carriage in place. (I think) The cross-slide (again, I think,) is pivoted in the center of the carriage and can swing around, somewhat like a compound slide on a normal lathe. There was no actual compound or tool posts, but the flattened place on the top of the cross slide has marks as if at one time there were postions for 2 tool posts. The headstock is of cast iron and the headstock spindle runs in what look like Babbit metal bearings. Spindle nose is 1 1/2x8TPI, and the spindle has a 3 step pulley for a flat belt about 1 1/2" wide. Also, the way the headstock casting is, the belt would have to be run from the overhead, as there isn't enough clearance for it to be run in from the side or bottom. There are two gear trains on the outside of the headstock, and a lever on one train (in the back of the lathe) engages power to the lead screw, while the other lever in the front controls the direction. The tailstock rides both cylinders too, and looks like a fairly normal screw feed type tailstock. There are no markings at all on this thing, and the little bit of paint I found here and there looks like a light greenish grey color. Several of the gears on the headstock are marked with a "J" inside a diamond shape, and two gears are marked with "D. O. James Mfg. Co." so I don't know if that's the gears themselves or the lathe. It was sitting on wood blocks in a barn that belonged to the father-in-law of a co-worker and he said he thought it has "probably been there since world war two." I haven't been able to find any reference to "D. O. James" on the net, nor have I seen any info on lathes that resemble this thing. So now my question is about the same as my wife's when she first saw it... "What the heck is it?" Also...it's cleaning up fairly nicely so far, and I may be able to butcher some metal with it yet. One more question, (for now) the tailstock opening is roughly 5/8" at the outside, and tapers down to something less inside. Is this a Morse Taper #2? Thanks for any answers or wild guesses! I have enjoyed reading this NG, and have learned quite a lot from the various posts...I'm still clueless, but I'm learning... -Karaya